Stuart McCall dismisses Kenny Shiels’ squad claim

Stuart McCall has laughed off suggestions by Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels that Motherwell only possessing a small squad is a “myth”.

Speaking ahead of today’s meeting between the sides at Rugby Park, Shiels suggested Motherwell have a “much bigger” squad than Kilmarnock and that the Ayrshire side “can’t shop in the same market as Motherwell”.

Motherwell manager McCall was keen to avoid a war of words with the often controversial and outspoken Shiels, although he was quick to dismiss the Northern Irishman’s views on the size of his squad. “I find Kenny interesting and entertaining, I have never had any problems with him, unlike a few of the other SPL managers,” said McCall. “I had a little smile when I read his comments, I don’t know if Kenny believes everything he says himself – I thought he perhaps had a few too many sherbets.

“Since I arrived at Motherwell, Kilmarnock have always had a bigger squad than ourselves. They did lose players in the window and that brought them down to having a similar size of squad as we do here.

“I’m not going to complain about our size of squad though, sometimes it can be a good thing and we have also been fortunate with injuries.”

Today’s match will be only Motherwell’s third fixture of 2013. They trail second-placed Inverness on goal difference in the SPL and McCall knows his side cannot let their lack of match-sharpness play a part against Kilmarnock.

“We want to come out of the blocks early and don’t want to see any signs of rustiness,” added McCall.

Kilmarnock defender Mahamadou Sissoko has backed his side for a place in the top six this season as they aim for success in both the SPL and the Scottish Cup.

“It’s very important to be in the top half of the table because the top six is always more exciting.

“So I hope we can finish in the top six this year,” he said.

“We had a good game against Inverness last week and the confidence is high now. Hopefully we can win this game.”